CSO 4-Pack

My friend, Sarah, and I have finally picked out our 4-pack of season tickets for the 2013-2014 season of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra!

I’m excited because the season promises to be a great one and this year, I’ll have some company along the way. Last year I bought tickets on my own. This year, I was able to talk a friend into going as well. She, my nephew and I all went to the concert last year with Rossini’s William Tell, Jean-Fery Rebel and Beethoven’s 6th Symphony. There’s nothing better than getting someone else hooked on classical music. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if she’s truly hooked or not, but going to four concerts is a great start!

This year, we have decided on the following four concerts to be performed in the Ohio Theatre.

MASTERWORKS 1 – RACHMANINOFF & BRAHMS
Saturday, October 12, 8pm

Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor

Maxim Mogilevsky, piano

Program

John Estacio, Brio

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2

Brahms, Symphony No. 4

Perhaps the most beloved of all piano concertos, Rachmaninoff’s second overflows with appealing Russian-flavored melodies, heady emotions, and dazzling solo virtuosity. The last of Brahms’ symphonies sums up that magnificent composer’s life with waves of warmth, nostalgia, regret, defiance, and joy.

**********

MASTERWORKS 4 – BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH
Saturday, November 16, 8pm

Thomas Wilkins, conductor

Ilya Gringolts, violinist

Program

Montague, World Premiere

Elgar, Violin Concerto

Beethoven, Symphony No. 5

Arguably the best-known opening theme in all of classical music, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony leads you on a thrilling, uplifting, emotional journey. Ilya Gringolts, whom the Financial Times has praised as “one of the most inspirational violinists today,” performs Englishman Sir Edward Elgar’s expansive, thoroughly romantic violin concerto. Also on the program is the world premiere of a work by distinguished composer and OSU graduate, Stephen Montague.

**********

MASTERWORKS 7 –ROMEO & JULIET
Saturday, February 15, 8pm

Michael Stern, conductor

Program

Berlioz, Love Scene from Romeo and Juliet

Bernstein, West Side Story Dances

Prokofiev, Ballet music from Romeo and Juliet

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than an evening with your sweetheart and Shakespeare’s immortal star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet! This outstanding program brings you selections from three of the finest musical settings of their story, each filled with the soaring emotions of young, passionate love.

**********

MASTERWORKS 10 – MOZART & STRAUSS
Saturday, April 12, 8pm

Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor

Susan Gritton, soprano Columbus Symphony Chorus

Program

Strauss, Four Last Songs

Mozart, Requiem

On this special Easter-season program, you’ll hear how two great composers concluded their careers and bid farewell to earthly life. In the Requiem that 35-year-old Mozart left unfinished, he offered a compelling mixture of beauty, anguish, majesty, and drama. At 84, Richard Strauss looked back over a long, brilliant career in the achingly nostalgic Four Last Songs.

**********

All of these have accompanying Friday night performances, but with our mid-shift schedules, Saturday night concerts are a must! I’m especially excited about Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem. And in a clever bit of planning, each of the pieces I know well and can’t wait to hear, is accompanied by pieces with which I’m not yet familiar, such as Elgar, more Brahms and more Strauss, so well done, CSO! Next season will be another great opportunity to expose myself to yet more new music.

These are just four of the twelve regular-season concerts for next season. I’m already planning on attending at least two more concerts thanks to an abundance of Mozart on the schedule and who knows after that? (Yea!)

If you’re in the area, or at least planning a trip to Columbus next year, I suggest checking out the complete schedule because it’s just chock full of great music. In addition to the twelve regular concerts, there’s also a season opener planned which promises to be an exciting performance: Mahler’s 2nd Symphony “Resurrection.”

Finally, in a rare treat, Pianist Lang Lang, is going to perform Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto in a Gala Fundraiser. Fear not! It’s more expensive, yes, but not by a lot. $25 is the normal price for the balcony seats. I believe they’re only $35-40 for the gala performance. For a pianist of his caliber (AMAZING), you just can’t beat that!

As of this posting, the 2013-2014 season brochure has yet to be posted on the CSO website, but I did find the original press release when the season was originally announced in April. Please take a look. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of familiar music mixed in with a wider variety of music ranging from Baroque all the way through contemporary classical.